Yesterday was a good day!

Hi there, I have been slacking on the blog updates. After the flu there wasn't much exciting to report. I pretty much laid around outside of work and slowly improved, thankfully. Unfortunately there are still a lot of folks at work that are ailing. Before I get to yesterday let me share a couple of fun things from the end of last week. On Thursday as I pulled in the driveway I saw what looked like white birds working a thermal updraft. After pulling out my binoculars it turned out to be glider planes from a nearby airport. Usually you might see a couple at a time it there were easily 20 of them. Very cool so I grabbed Michael when I parked and made him come to the backyard to see them too. After watching them a while it looked like they were heading back to the airport so we jumped in the mini and drove down to watch them land. There ,it's have been 100 different planes at the airport and we got to see a bunch of them land. There was a club having a weeklong meetup at the gliderport right there on highway 33. It was fun to see all of those cool planes. And then on Saturday we drove down for the Farm Day event at ECHO. It was a beautiful day and the event was well attended. We got to see many of our favorite ECHO staff and interns. If you don't know about ECHO from my previous blogs be sure to check them out at www.echonet.org So finally onto yesterday. I had a big schedule at MD Anderson with chemo, injection and a doctor's appointment. Everything went just fine and now I have another 3 weeks off from treatments. But I do have the next round of scans at the end of March. As my bones are feeling much better I expect that the scans will show that. I just wanted to keep you all updated. Hope everything is going well for you where you are. Enjoy Spring! We have the first tomatoes on the vine in our garden and that seems like a good sign of a pretty spring to come. And Blessings to you this Easter! Wendy

Wow! I can handle Cancer but this cold is kicking my butt!

Like many of you this winter I managed to catch a nasty cold this week. I certainly didn't mean to catch it but Michael caught it first and we do share a house and a bed. I hope to be on the upswing later today. I will just have to be tough and "suck it up, Cupcake!" Otherwise everything is fine here. I had chemo last Monday and now have a break all the way until March 18. That is wonderful, I just wish the silly cold wouldn't keep me from the gardening I wanted to do this weekend. Hope all is well in your world. Wendy

2 posts in one day!

Well I told you I would follow up. Everything went just fine. The hip x-rays were read by both the medical oncologist as well as my radiation oncologist. The word is that while I can't start weight bearing exercise for a couple more months yet from a cancer standpoint the hips look fine. Warning to any men following this blog you may want to tune out now. So sisters you know how much fun a mammogram can be, right? Well now think about the tech including a piece of hardware like oh say a port in the tissue that she is going to squeeze flat! Let me just say Ouch! Guys you can come back now. In between the scans and the doctor appointment I ran up to Maitland to drop a check at the Audubon Center for Birds of Prey and got to see a baby great horned owl. Let me tell you that was cool! The adults are huge birds and this baby is nearly full grown but still with baby feathers and awkwardness. The folks at the Center are rehabilitating her as she broke her wing badly when she fell from the nest. In this case she won't be able to be released back to the wild. When they get her fixed up and grown up she will be used for education to help her species and other birds of prey. Just wanted to share my fun bird encounter with you all too. TTFN Wendy

An overdue update

Hello, I realized that you haven't heard from me recently. Shame on me, but the good side of that was there was nothing to report. Maybe after today as I have a few scans and see Dr. Constantino later. At home Michael and I have been working on the garden and it is looking good. Hopefully our cold protection efforts this weekend will be successful in saving the tender crops like the just emerged beans and the newly planted tomatoes. It was 29 degrees this morning. As things grow up a bit more I will get a photo to share with you. Otherwise it has been pretty routine. One special thing this week is that we are celebrating Phyllis'(Michael's mom) 85th birthday today. She had some celebrations at the park where she lives over the weekend and this evening we get to take her out to dinner. Then later this week we are going down to Ft. Myers. Me to attend the ECHO board meetings and Michael to go play with Chris Bundschu. I thank all of you who are following this blog. It is great to know there are such awesome friends in my corner. Look for another post soon as I will let you know if anything or nothing comes out of today's scans and appointments. Love, Wendy

The day started out beautifully

As I was driving in to MD Anderson Hospital for my regular chemo treatment I passed a pasture just about at dawn and in the paddock was a young black calf running and jumping. to top it off the morning had patches of fog and the sun was just coming up and lit the fog so that it was pink. Pink fog with a cute black calf playing in it. Beautiful and surreal! The chemo treatment went fine and the new port work just like it is supposed to. That was a good thing. The last time it was just after the surgery and it really bruised up afterward. I think everything is nicely healed and it has settled in to be no excitement. Now I have two full weeks with before my next medical appointment, scan or treatment. WAHOO!! And to end the day Michael and I worked on planting more in our vegetable garden. Yes this is Florida and I planted my garden the beginning of February. Hopefully the weather will cooperate for another four weeks. But I really think it will be okay. Michael has done a great job at building the garden and I hope I can deliver some vegetables. Just wanted to let everyone know that all is well here. The next information will come after I have x-rays on the 18th. Love to you all. Wendy

Thanks for the inquiries, I am doing great!

Hi there everyone, I have been delinquent again in keeping you all informed. Sorry and that means a number of you had to actually inquire. So I am glad to report that all is going well. This week I actually don't have any medical or doctor's appointments, Yahoo! The past Saturday Michael and I participated in the Walt Disney World Holiday Bird Count. Our zone to look for birds was around the Magic Kingdom. It was a gorgeous Florida day with nothing but sunny skies, a light breeze and temperatures in the high 70's. We saw lots of beautiful birds from Bald Eagles to tiny Blue Gray Gnatcatchers. I am including some photos from that event. Wendy

At home Michael and I are working on getting our spring garden going and just generally enjoying the great weather. This week we will celebrate my Dad's 79th Birthday. Happy Birthday Papa!

Any Port?

So today Dr Chambers installed a Power Port. This is a mechanism that maintains a catheter in a vein that the doctors access to deliver chemo treatments. Oddly enough it is in the right side of my chest not the left. My friends out there who are sailors will get the humor. The procedure went fine and Michael and I were home by early afternoon.while my shoulder aches some I am happily ensconced on the couch with a dog on my feet and Michael is preparing dinner. I am very lucky. It will be a quiet weekend for us and I hope a good weekend for you all.